FELIPE ARROYO ROXAS

ROXAS, FELIPE ARROYO b. Paco, Manila 1840 d. Paris 13 Apr 1899. Painter. He is the son of Antonio

Roxas and Lucina Arroyo. He married Raymunda Chuidian. He was the brother of architect Felix Roxas. An

alumnus of the academia de Dibujo y pintura, he taught such subjects as linear drawing, drafting, and design at

the Colegio de San Juan de Letran. In 1884 up to the time he migrated to Paris, he taught at the University of

Santo Tomas (UST). Among his students were Jose Ma Asuncion. whom he advised to refine his studies in

Europe. Only a few paintings by the artist, have survived, namely, Casa indigena en Baliuag (Native House In

Baliuag), Puente de Paete (Paete Bridge), Iglesia de Antipolo (Antipolo Church), 1889, and Despues de la

merca (After Market Hours), all in the Pagrel Collection. In 1889 he left for Paris with his wife and children;

his descendants still live there.

Roxas is regarded as a painter of buildings because of the three extant paintings and reproductions of

numerous paintings now lost. This may have been the influence of his stepbrother, the architect Felix Roxas,

who built the gothic Santo Don-Lingo Church destroyed during WWII Felix might have asked Felipe to draft

the plans, facades, and interiors of the buildings he constructed. Thus Felipe's paintings of architecture are

firmly drawn, solidly defined, and enriched with a lot of architectural ornamental details. Casa indigena en

Baliuag shows a lower middle-class house of the period with a steep roof of nipa, bamboo stairs outside the

main structure, and window shutters also of bamboo. In the background is a rich upper-class house with stone

walls, capiz windows, and tiled roof. These works were exhibited at the Exposicion Regional de Filipinas in

1895